China expands pollution monitoring

CAUSES:：Although smokestacks and coal-burning factories have been removed from many Chinese cities, a rise in the number of cars has created many air quality problems

Reuters, BEIJING

Mon, Dec 31, 2012 - Page 4

China plans to release hourly air pollution monitoring data in 74 of its biggest cities starting on New Year’s Day, state media said yesterday, in a sign of increasing responsiveness to quality-of-life concerns among prosperous urban people.

Choking pollution and murky gray skies in Chinese cities is a top gripe among both Chinese and expatriates.

Microscopic pollutant particles in the air have killed about 8,600 people prematurely this year and cost US$1 billion in economic losses in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian, according to a study by Beijing University and Greenpeace that measured the pollutant levels of PM2.5, or particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter.

The new monitoring will include not only PM2.5, but also sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide, Xinhua news agency said, citing a Friday announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Data will be collected from 496 monitoring stations, it said.

First Beijing, then other cities have become more public about their air quality data since the US embassy in Beijing began publishing hourly data from a pollution monitor installed on embassy grounds in Beijing.

The embassy’s monitor often diverged with official air quality readings, adding to public pressure for the city to come clean about the state of its air. The US has extended its monitoring program to its consulates in China.

Yesterday was a clear and sunny winter day in Beijing, with the levels of ozone and PM2.5 declared “moderate” or “good,” according to embassy data. The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center rated PM10 concentrations as “excellent.”

Many Chinese cities have removed belching smokestacks and coal-burning factories from their centers in the past few years, but a rise in the number of cars during the same period has created new air quality problems.